The Fulham Supporters’ Trust hailed Fulham’s decision to scrap their premium rate ticket hotline number as a ‘huge victory for the fans’.

Fulham took the decision to axe the premium number in favour of a local number after listening to complaints from fans, who were paying extortionate amounts to access ticketing information or buy tickets.

Fulham Supporters’ Trust chair Tom Greatrex said: ‘This is a huge victory for the Fulham fans. It also shows the value of the structured relationship we have with Fulham Football Club, which allowed us to make these points face-to-face with the Club’s chief executive, chief revenues officer and head of ticketing.’

Fulham’s groundbreaking dialogue with the Trust has been commended in a Government report and was the subject of a special presentation at the Supporters Summit of football fans last month.

Greatrex, who has recently been elected as the new chair of national fans’ body Supporters Direct, revealed the Trust had received reports from their members that some fans received phone bills of more than £80 in both April and May.

‘There was obviously a lot of demand for tickets in the final weeks of the season as the play-off push under Slavisa Jokanovic gathered pace,’ he said. ‘Some fans didn’t have tickets delivered for the match at Sheffield Wednesday and others were calling to see how many loyalty points they had for both Reading matches in the play-offs.